*deep breath*

~copied from somewhere else~

Just think what we could have done without EU protectionism. The great successes of the British economy owe little to our membership of the EU or the Single Market and everything to do with Britain's global free trade outlook. If the EU was so good for business and trade, how come France and Italy aren't competing. How come Germany has such low internal demand growth?

The EU is a deeply regulative conservative body that seeks to legislate and control where Britain is takes a relatively liberal risk-based approach. The EU is also surprisingly bad at negotiating trade deals; being in the EU means we have no deal with America, China, Russia, India and Brazil despite decades of negotiation. Yet they all manage to sell into the single market.

Britain's economic success lies in high value-added goods and services such as banking, accountancy, advertising, design, research, education; things that the world wants in the language the the world speaks.

There is more investment banking knowledge on the Isle of Dogs than the rest of Europe. Five of the worlds top ten law firms are British; there are none in Europe. Three of the worlds top ten universities are British none are European. Seven of the worlds top ten accountancy businesses are headquartered in London, with only one elsewhere in the EU. The worlds largest advertising agency is British and only near rival is American. What is left of British manufacturing is truly global; companies like Rolls Royce and JCB sell in just about every country in the world. Same with the British pharma industry, which is cutting edge and at the beginning of its next generation product cycle.

None of these companies are there because we are in the EU. Most see their peers, markets and competition as being in the global power houses of New York, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Zurich, Tokyo, Seoul etc etc.

We don't know how competitive our other industries could be when freed from EU dogma. We have highly productive and efficient industrial farms that are paid not to produce so that subsistence farmers can work the same way they have for decades in France, Italy and Germany. We have industries that were deliberately shut to protect inefficient European peers. We impose ridiculous EU driven green energy tariffs when we are far less of a polluter than Europe.

I could go on. Hard Brexit for me; we should simply announce that we will maintain our zero tariff regime on EU imports unless the apply tariffs to us.

Posted By: MIKEWALKER, Oct 4, 11:13:21